Oldtown News

My look at the issues of our Oldtown neighborhood and other political news

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

COUNCILLOR STEVENSON's INDISCRETION

Underbelly NewsDowntown Eastside

COUNCILLOR STEVENSON's INDISCRETION

Hi All,

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but you can imagine how shocked I was to find out that Councillor Tim Stevenson, who is running for the NDP in Van-Burrard, took credit for organizing a political meeting between the PRIDE parade people and the community. Posted below is a press release which went out from GREEN party candidate, Janek Kuchmistrz, which I think sums up Mr Stevenson's indiscretion.

Enjoy~ Jamie Lee

***NDP Falsely Claiming Credit for Pride Society Meeting***

Vancouver - April 3, 2005

NDP Candidate Tim Stevenson is falsely claiming on his campaign website (http://nid-1957.timstevenson.ndetail.bc.ndp.ca/) to have brought, together members of the community and the Pride Society, to listen to and to discuss the Vancouver Pride Society's proposed changes to the Pride Parade route.

In fact, the meeting held on Tuesday, March 29th was organized by Jim Deva, co-owner of Little Sister's Bookstore, and by Jamie Lee Hamilton, XtraWest 1997 Community Hero and community activist. Far from instigating the meeting, like Ellen Woodsworth, city councilor Stevenson had only accepted an invitation to the meeting, extended by the organizers.

I was astounded to read this press release, claiming credit for the initiative to resolve this issue, said Vancouver-Burrard Green Party Candidate Janek Kuchmistrz, who also attended the meeting. It is surprising that any individual would seek to aggrandize themselves in this way, particularly when the intiative to publicize and inform the community came from Jamie Lee Hamilton and Jim Deva.

I feel this may be a harbinger of the coming election campaign, where in the absence of any real feel for the pulse of British Columbians, the NDP continues to try to lay claim to Green Party initiatives, whether they be on environmental, or, as in this case, on community-based issues.

Green Party Vancouver-Burrard candidate Janek Kuchmistrz can be reached for comment at 604.875.0797 or by email at Janek_Kuchmistrz@greenparty.bc.ca